Usually these reflector poles are used along the highway and in residential areas. A great many of these reflector poles are positioned along roads, highways or pedestrian footpaths. The poles are positioned in constant distances to each other, whereas the light active field is performed as a retro-reflective field. They are taught to mark the road and to improve the drive comfort. The colour of the retro-reflective field may be different depending on the driving direction for vehicles or depending on the left or right side of the highway. Usual reflector poles, which are used in residential area, feature a red or a white retro-reflective field.
A basic drawback of this kind of reflector poles is the passive behaviour of the light active field, which is performed as a retro-reflective field. Only in the case, if incident light is directed onto the reflector field, the reflector reflects a re-light. When a vehicle is oncoming, their headlights illuminate the retro-reflective field, which is visible for the driver of the vehicle. Oncoming pedestrians, who do not have any light source, may not take any notice of the presence of the reflector poles. Against this background of the passive behaviour of usual retro-reflective fields, light active fields are known which comprise active light sources.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,120 discloses a reflector element for traffic application, comprising a main body, which may be secured to a highway or alternatively, to a vertical wall. Within this main body a light active field is applied, which may reflect light in a predetermined direction towards the highway traffic. Within this light active field, a light source is integrated in order to emit active light by the reflector pole. Moreover, a battery and a photo voltaic system are provided, in order to avoid the installation of many kilometres of cables to supply all the poles with electrical power. Thus, the reflector poles are performed as self-sustaining units without any external power supply. The light source is performed as a light emitting diode (LED), which is unfortunately a point-shaped light source. Combinations between LEDs and reflectors feature a reflector field, which may be performed as a cube corner array, and in which a matrix of LEDs is integrated. Indeed, in the prior art is known a combination between a retro-reflector element and active light sources, but unfortunately the number of LEDs feature an inhomogeneous emission behaviour, because the light emission is performed by an accumulation of a quantity of single point light sources. Moreover, the reflector field is interrupted by the positions of the LEDs, and that leads to an inhomogeneous reflective behaviour of the retro-reflector. Moreover, a high number of LEDs consume a high quantity of electrical power, which leads to a higher request of the delivery of electrical energy.